Engineering a move across the borough

Andrew Nowell

A successful engineering firm from the borough which prevents massive power cuts is looking forward to an exciting new chapter in 2017.

PE Systems has moved from the Leigh base it has called home for more than two decades and will officially unveil its new premises in Hindley Green.

It’s the end of an era in Leigh but we have run out of space here and it has become impractical not to have more room for the guys on the shop floor.

Mike Smith

The firm, founded by Wigan-born businessman Mike Smith with help from his wife June, has grown massively and now employs a team of around 45 people while counting the National Grid, Electricity North West and utilities firms across the UK as clients.

The firm makes batteries and stand-by systems designed to ensure that faults in electricity systems do not lead to places being plunged into blackness.

Managing director Mike said: “It’s the end of an era in Leigh but we have run out of space here and it has become impractical not to have more room for the guys on the shop floor.

“We design and manufacture bespoke equipment and control systems for water, gas and mainly electricity.

“If you have a burglar alarm at home it has a system which if the mains fails continues to protect the house and ensures the alarm still works for up to 24 hours. What we do is a bigger version of that on an industrial scale. It can be emergency systems which keep the lights on for an hour while people vacate a building or it can be various traction batteries and stand-by systems.

“The new place in Hindley Green gives us basically double the manufacturing area and I’m hoping it will make us more competitive, more efficient and allow us to move into other areas.”

Mike, who now lives in Westhoughton, founded the business, then called Power Electronics, in 1987 after leaving battery maker Chloride.

The firm took on its current name after 12 months and then got a springboard to success by winning TV show Flying Start, competing against another Wigan company.

PE Systems has come a long way since its humble origins in a garage, when June would join in the soldering and repairing work, to become one of the UK’s leading businesses in its sector. The firm has just moved to its new 32,000 sq ft base on the Hindley Green Business Park.